The senator is spearheading a bill that will be discussed in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on Tuesday. He said police agencies should not be able to spy on residents using remote control unmanned aircraft. Privacy advocates agree.

“The danger that these unmanned drones present is that without strict rules in place to protect individual privacy, they are another step toward a state of constant and permanent police surveillance," Baylor Johnson, of the American Civil Liberties Union, said.

The sheriff's office argues the two drones will only be used if there is a potential loss of life and only when the drones present an optical advantage.

“It's important for people to know that these things will not fly willy-nilly all over town,” Orange County Sheriff’s spokesman Jeff Williamson said. “They will be used for critical incidents, critical incidents only, where only one person would be able to deploy them."

FAA rules state that drones must be flown in the line of sight of the operator, less than 400 feet above the ground and during daylight conditions. The ones that could be used by the Sheriff's Office won't be like the ones equipped with weapons in Afghanistan or military drones along the coast.